Marvel’s Hawkeye: All The Easter Eggs Of The First Two Episodes! Spoilers Ahead!
The first two episodes of Marvel’s Hawkeye are unrelated to the great multiverse chaos now unfolding in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story is set in Christmas 2024, two years after the events of Avengers: Endgame (and who knows that all that chaos of parallel universes has already been solved) precisely to allow him to tell his story with simplicity, as well as to introduce Kate Bishop, character destined to remain. Despite this, there are several links to the MCU and Easter eggs that wink at comic book fans. Let’s see together what the first two episodes have given us, waiting for the third, scheduled for Wednesday 1 December!
The Battle of New York
The series opens with little Kate Bishop living with her family in a luxury Manhattan apartment overlooking Stark Tower in 2012. We all know what happened that year, in the MCU: the battle against the Chitauri led by Loki (and from Thanos in the shade) and the actual birth of the Avengers. Clint Barton saves Kate, similar to comics, and becomes her idol, as a superhero with no real superpowers.
The Stane Tower
Kate’s damaged clock tower inscription on a plaque reads: “The oldest university bell tower in the United States. The foundation stone for the tower was laid in 1725. The tower was re-dedicated to Obadiah Stane, in his honor”. Yes, the villain in the first Iron Man, jealous of the rise of Tony Stark, who teamed up with a terrorist branch of the Ten Rings. Tony and the SHIELD covered up his misdeeds after his death, so his legacy remains, but the fall of the tower could be symbolic, after all!
Kate’s friend Greer
As Kate prepares her bow and arrow to hit the Stane Tower bell, she calls her friend Greer about a bet between the two. Perhaps it will remain just a coincidence, but Greer has the same civilian name as superhero Tigra, who also clashed with Hawkeye in the comics.
Rogers, the Musical
Based on the Battle of New York of the first Avengers (although it could tell the whole life of Steve, given the title), where according to the authors also Ant-Man appears, making fun of the way of making the adaptations, Rogers sees important signatures: the song Save the City was written by Tony Award, composer, and Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, famous for the musical Hairspray and the soundtrack of Mary Poppins Returns.
Hawkeye and The Hearing Problems
In the second episode, a quick and ironic montage reminds us of some of the moments that led Clint to almost lose his hearing. Now the Avenger is wearing a hearing aid and we also see him using sign language with his son. In the comics several times he had to deal with hearing loss (among other things, essential for the aim of an archer). In the 1980s when he exploded with a sonic arrow to prevent his brainwashing he lost 80% of his hearing, or in the acclaimed series of Fraction and Aja, on which this show seems to base much of his narrative, in which he discovered himself that Barton also knows how to use sign language after being abused as a child, but has almost always hesitated to use it because it reminds him of that terrible time. In the series he loses his hearing completely when the assassin Clown pierces the hero’s ears.
“Thanos was Right”
Clint, during the scene of the musical, goes to the bathroom and finds “Thanos was right” written on the sink. Between Infinity War and Endgame this slogan often peeped out, simulating the extremisms that even in the real world regret dictatorships of the past . Even in the comics there was a “Magneto was right”, when with the war he wanted the superiority of the mutants over the humans, unlike the approach of peaceful equality used by the X-Men. We’ve seen some pro-blip groups in the MCU, such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Flagsmashers who based their own foundation on how they felt better during Thanos’ post-snap.
Jacques Duquesne
Eleanor Bishop found love after the loss of her husband during the Battle of New York. On the show, Jacques “Jack” Duquesne (Tony Dalton) is a sword collector and expert swordsman, who appears to be hiding something, as revealed in the scene with his wealthy uncle Armand Duquesne III, at the black market auction. In the comics he is known with the battle name Swordsman, he was the instructor of Hawkeye and then became a mercenary and villain of the Avengers. Even in the show he seems to be in a gray area, who knows if he will turn out to be a total villain or is there more underneath? And who knows if he knows Clint Barton in this version too.
Armand Duquesne III
Played by Simon Callow, Armand also shows Kate that he is not very happy with his nephew Jack’s engagement to Eleanor. He does not trust her and clarifies it to the directly interested privately, during the party of the first episode. It doesn’t end well for the man though, as he is found killed right at the end of the first episode, by Kate. In the comics Armand is Jack’s father, not uncle, he was a government officer in Sian-Cong, a more recent alternative Vietnam and he brought his son the Crimson Knight’s sword, used by Jacques as the Swordsman. Armand was a cruel man to everyone, starting with servants. And one of these underlings killed him. In the series we do not see abuses of any kind that can move someone to kill him, who was it?
Lucky, aka Pizza Dog
The stray dog who joins Clint and Kate is called Lucky, in the comics, nicknamed Pizza Dog because of his love for the Italian dish par excellence. In the comics it belonged to Ivan Banionis and the Mafia in Tuta and was called Arrow. He rebelled against his master by helping Clint and was beaten up and thrown into traffic. To repay Hawkeye he had him treated and adopted, but over time the dog preferred to follow Kate Bishop to Los Angeles, where he also confronted Taskmaster. Will he remain a passing mascot in the series or will he become a true superhero? We certainly all agree that he is the best dog of all, though.
Ivan and The Mafia in Suit
Ivan Banionis (Aleks Paunovic), lieutenant of the Mafia in Tracksuits, appears with his men during a black market auction, only to be confronted by Kate in Ronin’s clothes. In the comics they continually say “Bro” as in the series and even there they represent the comic part of the series. While in the comics they are independent and Ivan is their boss, here they are under Echo’s leadership and seem to have bigger ambitions to control the neighborhood, but we’ll know more in the next installments.
The “Avengers Compound #268” Watch
One of the mysteries of these first two episodes is the clock found in the remains of the Avengers’ palace. Why is it so important? And is the number 268 he is ranked with at the black market auction coincidental? The only numerical connection found is that in Avengers # 268, Kang appears, now on the lips of all Marvel fans. Who knows what the true meaning of the number is, as long as it is not random and there are no easter eggs in this particular choice.
Kate’s Names On The Intercom
When Kate and Clint go to the girl’s apartment / shelter (which turns out to be where her aunt lives) we see on the intercom several names reminiscent of Marvel artists: Sosa (Marcelo Sosa), Meyers (Seth Meyers), Danzig (Glebb Danzig) and Moskowitz (Sam Moskovitz). Surname too specific to be random, what do you think?
Kate Bishop’s Aunt: Moira Brandon
The owner of the apartment where Clint and Kate take refuge is the girl’s aunt and her name is Moira Brandon. She is a former actress who is now in Florida to spend the winter. Fans have recognized in that surname a character, surname Brandon, who in West Coast Avengers n.100 is a movie star from which (right in Florida) the group buys a villa , which becomes their new headquarters. the woman dies to save Hawkeye in a fire and is promoted to honorary Avenger. The Avengers of the West Coast are a second team born right on the American west coast, who knows if this surname, Brandon, could symbolize their future birth.
The Poster Of The Movie “Creature Of The Dark Galaxy”
In Moira’s apartment there is a poster with an alien and the words “Creature of the Dark Galaxy”, a film with Moira Brandon and Luke Ballard. The alien does not refer to specific Marvel creatures, Moira is obviously Kate’s aunt while the name Luke Ballard is the same as that of a digital artist who has worked on many Marvel films, including Doctor Strange and Avengers: Infinity War. He hasn’t worked on Hawkeye as far as we know, but it remains a welcome tribute to the artist.
Grills
It’s hard not to love Grills (Clayton English), a live role-playing firefighter who stole Ronin’s costume while putting out the fire from Kate’s apartment. After the confrontation between him and Clint, Clint agrees to give him the costume in exchange for a “kill” of Hawkeye in the game, which he must provoke. Clint accepts, sighing in disbelief because after all “I fought Thanos”, he reflects. He is defeated by Grills and the two become friends in some way, because Clint admits that it wasn’t so bad to role-play in disguise. In the comics Grills is a neighbor and friend of Barton’s, but he is not a firefighter. He is a middle-aged man who among other things does not end well because of the murderer Clown, hired to kill Clint. Let’s hope the character doesn’t end so badly in the series!
The Disney Store
In one particular scene, when Clint and Kate leave Moira’s apartment and head to Bishop Securities, a Disney Store can be seen very clearly in the background, in Times Square. After all, Marvel is now legally owned by Disney, even if a bitter smile has appeared on many spectators, who know of the closure by Disney of most of the stores in the chain.
Detective Caudle
In the second episode, Kate receives a call from Detective Caudle asking where she was when her apartment caught fire. Even if we only see it briefly, we know that in the comics Caudle plays a very important role for Kate. He’s her contact with the Santa Monica PD when she ends up on the West Coast as a detective. At the end of the series, a working understanding could be born between the two that will evolve in the future.
Username: Bishop112012
Clint is kidnapped by the Mafia in Jumpsuit and Kate turns on her tracker to find him. The username the girl types in is “Bishop112012”. They are not random numbers, because on the cover of number 2 of the Hawkeye series by Matt Fraction (always the one to which this series is inspired) appears the date November 2012. Kate Bishop makes her debut on that issue, together with the dog Lucky.
Echo
At the end of the second episode she is introduced in the last seconds, Echo. Real Name: Maya Lopez, played by actress Alaqua Cox. Here she is in charge of the Mafia in Tracksuit and Ivan joins her to warn her that he has kidnapped Clint and Kate, while she seems to perceive the vibrations of the speakers that are blasting music at full blast. She doesn’t seem dazed by the music, a sign that she is clearly deaf, like in the comics. In the latter she is also mute and was the first Ronin: she has the ability to replicate anyone’s moves, like Taskmaster, and was raised by Kingpin who made her believe she knew the identity of who killed her parents, or Daredevil. In reality it is the Kingpin himself who killed them, but he lies to her to use it as a weapon against the Red Devil. For many this is an indication of the presence of Kingpin, perhaps played by Vincent D’onofrio directly from the Daredevil series of Netflix. The actor also tweeted recommending watching the series, but how can he know its goodness without having seen it? Did he star in it or does he just want to tease some of the fans? Echo, however, goes, is unlikely to remain an enemy all the time, and will likely turn to the good side as she did in the comics, considering that a TV spin-off about her is on the way after her debut in the Hawkeye series.
